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RUEHAST/USOFFICE ALMATY 1589

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 000959 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARMENT FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, ECA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON EAGR ENRG SCUL SOCI KPAO KZ
SUBJECT:  KAZAKHSTAN: KOSTENAI, THE WHEAT AND SLAVIC HEARTLAND OF 
KAZAKHSTAN 
 
ASTANA 00000959  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  On May 24-26, the Charge d'Affaires visited 
Kostanai -- a northern city of 250,000 people located in a heavily 
agricultural area -- to attend a concert by visiting American jazz 
musicians and to open Kazakhstan's ninth American Corner.  Kostanai 
is Kazakhstan's largest wheat producing region and the only oblast 
with an Akim (Governor) of Slavic Heritage.  The Charge also met 
with Kostanai Akim Sergey Kulagin, toured a local school and art 
gallery, visited with Peace Corps volunteers and alumni of 
U.S.-sponsored exchange programs, and enjoyed an immense display of 
Kazakhstani hospitality.  The Charge's trip was the first ever visit 
by a high-level embassy official to Kostanai, and local officials 
were keen to put their best foot forward.  END SUMMARY. 
 
MEETING WITH KOSTENAI AKIM 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Kostanai Oblast Akim Sergey Kulagin opened the meeting 
with the Charge by noting that the people of Kostanai love jazz.  He 
said he hoped that the Charge had had an opportunity to hear 
Kostanai's professional musicians firsthand.  Kulagin said that his 
first experience with the United States had been in 1994, when he 
signed an agreement for technical exchange in the area of 
agriculture, and that he had visited the United States last year. 
He stressed that agricultural cooperation and trade -- particularly 
related to chicken legs -- was "very successful." 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Turning to the topic of the upcoming Foreign Investors' 
Council meeting, Kulagin said it would take place in Kostanai 
because "President Nazarbayev trusts us."  He stated that he hoped 
the meeting would draw the attention of foreign investors to 
Kostanai oblast.  Kulagin noted that one of his oblast's biggest 
projects is a brown coal field and said he hoped that investors 
would soon construct a power station. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The Charge replied that the idea of a power station was a 
good one, but that coal technology should be as "green" as possible. 
 He suggested that U.S.-Kazakhstani ventures in areas such as wind 
and solar power could be fruitful and noted that Foreign Minister 
Tazhin had recently met with Secretary of Energy Chu. The Charge 
also stressed that the United States would like to see all of 
Central Asia united in one common energy network.  (COMMENT:  The 
following day, the oblast web-site had added a notation on the 
average number of sunny days per year.  END COMMENT.) 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Kulagin responded that there had been a common power grid 
in Soviet times.  He said Kostanai had previously received energy 
from a power station 200 kilometers away in Russia, but now received 
it from Ekibastuz, a city in Kazakhstan located more than 1,000 
kilometers away.  Kulagin also said that a wind study was ongoing 
and that he hoped for conclusions next year.  In addition, he noted 
that Kostanai had a biofuel project designed to produce ethanol but 
said he was against the idea of producing ethanol from grain. 
"Maybe in Brazil it is okay," he stressed, "but here it is not a 
good idea.  If it is from corn, livestock will have problems; if it 
is from grain, people will have problems." 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Kulagin said that Kostanai is ready to cooperate with U.S. 
investors, but warned that they "shouldn't be late."  He noted that 
Kostanai has many Russian investors, as well as Canadian companies 
already working in agriculture, gold, and copper. 
 
RHYTHM ROADS GROUP JAZZ QUARTET PLAYS TO A PACKED HOUSE 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The Charge gave opening remarks at an evening performance 
of the Brian Horton Quartet, an American jazz group sponsored by the 
State Department's Rhythm Roads program in conjunction with Jazz at 
Lincoln Center.  Every one of the Kostanai Philharmonic's 400 seats 
was filled and there were people standing in the aisles.  The 
audience demonstrated their enthusiasm by showering the musicians 
with flowers.  The quartet's closing number -- a jazz rendition of a 
traditional Kazakh folk song -- went over particularly well.  Deputy 
Akim of Kostanai Oblast Serik Bekturganov ended the concert by 
warmly thanking the Embassy for bringing "a piece of America" to 
 
ASTANA 00000959  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
Kostanai. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Earlier in the day, the Quartet conducted a master class. 
Local musicians were so enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn 
from the Quartet that professional musicians from the Kostanai 
Philharmonic agreed to participate in a joint workshop with student 
musicians from the Rudny Music College, located in a town 40 minutes 
away.  Nearly 80 people attended the master class, which ended in a 
jam session. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) The desire of the Akimat (regional government) to 
properly thank the musicians and show off Kazakhstani hospitality 
continued throughout the evening.  At a dinner hosted by the Deputy 
Akim, the table groaned with food and drink, and every foreign guest 
received a handmade item of traditional Kazakhstani clothing.  This 
was only the beginning.  Dinner was followed by a full program of 
entertainment designed to show off the oblast's top talent and 
multi-ethnic character.  Each foreign guest had a song specifically 
dedicated to him or her: there was a Slavic group singing 
traditional Ukrainian favorites, a Korean chanteuse, a Russian 
singer-songwriter playing guitar, a performance of famous Kazakh 
opera pieces by performers from the local opera, and a group of pop 
singers dressed in shimmering faux-Egyptian wear.  An oblast-hosted 
dinner the following night on May 25 took place in a faux castle, 
complete with suits of armor, a framed rock that had allegedly been 
removed from a castle in Scotland, and a wall-length glass cabinet 
containing at least 100 collectible dolls. 
 
AMERICAN CORNER OPENING 
 
¶11.  (SBU) In the morning, the Charge and Deputy Akim Bekturganov 
presided over the opening of Kazakhstan's ninth American corner at 
the Kostanai Oblast Scientific Universal Library.  Local cultural 
officials pulled out all the stops to make the opening a memorable 
event.  There were children in traditional Kazakh dress, girls from 
the local modeling agency, and performances by the bronze medalist 
in the "rock vocal" category of the World Contest of Performing Arts 
and the local marching band.  The event -- which was attended by 
approximately 90 guests including government officials, exchange 
program alumni, teachers of English, Peace Corps volunteers, and 
media representatives -- received widespread positive media 
coverage. 
 
OBLAST OFFICIALS SHOW OFF THEIR CITY 
 
¶12. (SBU) Oblast officials were determined to show off their city in 
the best possible light and accompanied the Charge as he met with 
students at a specialized English school and visited a local art 
gallery.  He also participated in a discussion club at the American 
Corner, at which numerous students performed poems, songs, and even 
a ballroom dance sequence.  A planned visit to the local art school 
was scrapped when the head of the school failed to demonstrate to 
local officials that he had adequately choreographed the visit.  A 
walking tour of Kostanai's historic pre-revolutionary buildings was 
also eliminated by local officials, who preferred instead to show 
off their "House of Friendship," a government building featuring a 
"tower of wheat" with rooms dedicated to each nationality that lives 
in the oblast. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) The Charge also hosted six Peace Corps volunteers for 
lunch and met with alumni of U.S.-sponsored exchange programs.  When 
asked whether the Community Connections program had made a 
difference in his life one alumnus pumped his fist in the air and 
said he had been so impressed that upon his return he had been 
unable to work for a month. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Oblast officials carefully scripted the visit to show off 
what they thought were their city's best features.  A short city 
tour on the way to the airport centered not on Kostanai's historic 
buildings, but rather on the newly constructed "French house" -- a 
building housing a toy museum, shops, and the French Cultural 
Center.   The building is adorned with life-sized bronze statues of 
Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Poppins, and Joan of Arc.  It also 
houses a large clock.  At 1:00pm each day, large dolls representing 
 
ASTANA 00000959  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and a clown appear out of the clock 
and perform a dance.  The oblast is attempting to have the clock 
recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.  The Deputy Akim 
was also anxious to show off his city's train station and 
larger-than-life Soviet-era monument commemorating Khrushchev's 
Virgin Lands Campaign.  According to the Deputy Akim, Kostanai's 
monument is the second-largest monument commemorating workers in the 
former Soviet Union. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Kostanai is the Russian heartland of 
Kazakhstan.  Kulagin is one of two non-Kazakh Akims (he is of 
Russian heritage while the other is German.)  In many ways the 
Soviet Union is not forgotten in Kostanai.  For example, at the 
Great Patriotic War (WWII) monument, there was a floral red star 
with a hammer and sickle in the center in yellow carnations. 
Moreover, democratic centralism is alive and well.  The library 
director begged us not to tell the Deputy Akim that we had seen her 
since she had begged off on the second evening of extended dining. 
She said she was afraid that the Deputy Akim would be very upset 
that she had worked with us but missed the dinner.  However, not 
everything Soviet is sacred.  The head of the Akim's cultural 
department proudly showed us that they were restoring a wall where 
over 1,000 White Army officers had been shot.  Kostanai seems eager 
for foreign contact.  It may provide fertile soil for commercial 
opportunities, especially in the agricultural-support sector.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
HOAGLAND